Curry Oyster Noodle Soup

Is this a laksa?  Probably not but similar.  I used crab shells to make a stock, simmered the result with curry paste, lemon grass, lime leaves and ginger for 20 minutes.  Season with salt, cane sugar and fish sauce, then added coconut milk and poached the oysters in it until done.  Put it together with rice noodles, bean sprouts, scallion and cilantro.

Crispy Garlicky Oysters

This is a very tasty way to eat oyster both alone or with rice.  The oysters are first parboiled for a couple minutes after washing with flour. Dusted with salt, pepper and flour, they are shallow fried until crisp, lots of slices of garlic and fresh chili pepper are added until golden; serve. 

'Crystal' Zong 水晶粽

This is certainly not traditional but kind of fun to make and eat.  It is made of sweeten and barely soaked small tapioca pearls (3 minutes) and red bean paste.  The bamboo leaves have to be oil lightly to prevent sticking.  Boil for 40 minutes after wrap.  Let cool and reheat to just soft (I zap it for 20 seconds) before eating.

Tomato and Egg 番茄蛋

I loved this when I was a kid and I still love it.  Simplest and, when in tomato season, cheapest dish. Just cook down lots of rip tomato a bit with some fresh ginger, add a few eggs (in between scrambled and omelette), scallion and cilantro, season with salt and sugar and that is it.  Make a lot of rice and just ladle this over, nothing say summer to me more.

Beef and Radish Noodle Soup 蘿蔔牛肉麵

I often use brisket for this but here I have shank meat, it is as good and a lot leans with plenty of nice tendon.  Same recipe as usual--caramelized some sugar in oil then add whole garlic cloves, big slices of ginger and hot bean sauce 辣豆瓣醬; cook a little then add meat.  When the meat is well coated, add water or beef stock and cook until the meat is tender.  Add big chunks of white radish 白蘿蔔 and cook till tender.  It is good to let the radish sit in the soup overnight to get the flavour through.  I like to add raw garlic, sliced scallion, soy sauce , sesame oil and dark aged Shanxi vinegar 山西老陳醋 for season in the soup with noodles. 

Sweet Belly 東坡肉

Chinese like pork, and traditionally the belly above all parts.  Now, well, people are scared by the fat.  Sometimes though, cook a well flavoured belly dish and a little goes a very long way.  This is perhaps the most famous way of preparing it, allegedly created and favoured by Su Dongpo 蘇東坡, the great Song Dynasty statesman, scholar, artist, poet and oversized gourmet.  Whole piece of belly, here about a pound, is first boiled in water for 15 minutes, cut into small pieces then lined skin side down into a pot on top of lots of scallion and ginger.  Pour in good Shaoxing wine 紹興酒 to half way up the meat, sprinkled on top dark soy sauce and sugar (it is a rather sweet dish) and simmer for an hour or so then turn to simmer the meat side  until it is tender.  Skim the fat then reduce the sauce until syrupy; lay the pieces into a jar, spoon the sauce over then steam cover for half an hour or so.  The result is creamy and sweet skin and fatty tissue, with much of the lard cooked out of it.  Small pieces of heaven indeed. 

Red Bean Paste 紅豆沙

Looks like a ugly mess, doesn't it?  This is in fact one of the all time favourite dessert fillings in all of East Asia.  I was going to buy some to fill some sweet zong but it is midnight and no store is open.  I had red beans so I made the paste myself.  The process is simple, cook the bean until opened then blend it smooth; brown some sugar in some oil then add the puree, cook out the water to form a paste, add more sugar and oil if needed.  How sweet it is.

Chinese Tamale 绿豆粽

Boat Festival 端午節 has become popular the world over as a sporting event--dragon boat racing.  The food for this festival, however remain a relative unknown to most.  Zong 粽 is like a tamale, wrapped in bamboo leaves mostly, rather than corn husk.  This is a very popular one with soaked sweet rice (which exists in almost all traditional zong), soaked shelled mung beans, salted egg yolk and five spice and soy sauce marinated pork belly.  These things, are wrapped in layers inside bamboo leaves, tie up and boil in water for a couple of hours.  I like to eat this unwrapped with dark soy sauce and a sprinkle of white pepper.






And this is what they look like.

Prawn, Papaya and Avocado Roll...or, Leftovers

I have a few steams spot prawn, a slice of papaya and half of a avocado in the fridge and thought "isn't that just the making of a good sushi roll?"  So, here it is, add a sheet of nori and a hand full of sushi rice, a very North American sushi roll. 

Butterflied Roast Chicken

I really don't know why people roast their chicken whole.  Butterflying it makes it cook faster and allows for higher heat.  What this does is, I think, to put the chicken under heat for a shorter period of time and crisp the skin much more evenly.  I also like to put garlic cloves, herbs, slice lemon and what-not under the chicken to flavour it.  Since the flavouring agents are heated from the beginning, the flavours penetrate the meat quickly. 

Chicken Rice with a little too much tomato

This is what happens with too much tomato in the rice--it is as if I put catchup into it.  I had about three quarter of a can of tomato and thought what is a tomato more or less... Well, the rice gets too sweet and gluey.  The deep red does set off the green of the peas well though. 

Polenta?

No, the yellow thing is not polenta but millet 小米.  Before rice became the main grain in China, millet was the thing.  Now, it is still very popular in Northern China.  The Chinese communist say they won the revolution with just millet and rifles.  Personally, I like it because it is refreshing and tasty.  Usually it is eaten as a porridge, a congee, but here I make it much thicker so it looks like polenta or couscous.  It eats a little like couscous too, like couscous with fibre.

One Pot Pork Blade Steak

Blade is cheap and tasty, just need a bit of cooking, made for the pressure cooker.  Here I salt-pepper-n-cumin the chop and then sear it right in the pot.  Add some garlic and onion, sauté till soft then add some big pieces of potato.  20 minutes under pressure and it is down.  I put some cauliflowers in once and the florets kept their shapes but turned into cream of cauliflower as soon as I touched them, rather cool.

Sand Worms 沙蟲

And yes, these are worms, tasty worms.  I grew up on these things.  They are raising them now, but these are wild from where they originates--Lower Dragon Pool Village, Beihai, Guangxi, China 北海龍潭下村--my mom's hometown and the hands of her friends and family.  They are turned inside out, cleaned and dried.  To eat as snacks, traditionally they are fried with just a touch of oil in a pan until they browns; I, however, am lazy and use the oven by tossing them with a drop of oil and a touch of salt before baking at 400℉ until brown.  They crisp up nicely when cooled.  How do they taste?  Well, sort of like dry scallop but even better. 

Garlicky Chicken 'Steak'

I usually don't add chili to this dish but this time I did and thought "why didn't I?!"  Salt-n-peppered boneless chicken thighs are pan seared crisped then sliced garlic and chili are added.  Simple but so very tasty. 

Echigo Denemon Junmai Dai Ginjyo 越後伝衛門純米大吟醸

I was so happy to find this bottle in the back of the wine fridge.  Bought a few about 3 years ago and thought I had drunk them all.  This got to be one my of favourite amongst sakes available here one time or another.  It is dry but not thin or sharp, plenty of rice, fruit and floral fragrance. The mouth feel is full but nowhere near heavy.  The tail is long and smooth with sweet rice and peaches carrying through.  It is open and generous, nothing boring or austere about it, very gregarious and happy.  Too bad this is the last bottle.

Curry Beef 咖哩牛腩

This is about the heaviest curry I make.  The cut is brisket, quite fat and with a fair amount of tendons.  Combine that with coconut milk, it is heavy.  I make the curry powder myself by toasting and grinding some cumin, coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, black poppy seeds, chili flakes and black pepper then  blend it with turmeric powder and hot chili powder.  Since I like to use the pressure cooker for the moist texture, I marinate the meat with this mixture for a couple of days before cooking so the flavours penetrate without long cooking.  For the cooking part, garlic, ginger and onion are first sautéed first before the meat is added, chunks of carrot, lime leaves and salt are next.  After a couple of minutes, water is added to cover and then cook under pressure for half an hour.   The meat is now just the other side of completely tender.  Big pieces of potatoes and coconut milk join the pot and then under pressure for 10 more minutes.  I like peas, so frozen peas go in to just warm through.  Certainly not a dish to eat too much or the heart may stop, but since it is so rich, a little on rice goes a long long way.  I ain't so bad after all, I hope...

Lione's Head 蝦籽獅子頭

Lion's head is what Chinese call meatballs because the way they look.  The most famous is made with the precious fresh water crab roes in the fall.  Chinese crabs are not imported to Canada and it is still spring so I made these with shrimp roes instead.  The roes are dried and look like reddish brown poppy seeds.  I toasted the roes light first.  The trick of making a good lion's head is in the mixing.  Seasonings are simply and basic, just scallion, ginger, sugar and soy sauce.  The technical part is to mix the meat in the same direction while adding water until it is saturated but not overflowing with water yet holds together well.  Shaped and fried before slowing cooking them in water, sugar, soy sauce, shaoxing  wine, for a couple of hours.  Since I was using shrimp roes already, I figured why not use some dry shrimps and shiitake mushroom too?  In they went also.  The result is even better then expected.  What they like to say in hip restaurants these days...?  Oh, yeah, umami bombs, and those they are.

Unchop

Seems like I still can't get out of the pork world yet.  I was lazy and didn't want to go shopping today.  While staring at the fridge, I found only some ground pork.  To be quick, I made some zhajiang 炸醬 for noodles to calm the hunger.  Zhajiang is one of those things that is all over East Asia, no matter if you are in different parts of China, Korea or Japan, you find this sauce made with pork and the local favourite bean sauces, Korean uses black bean sauce chunjang 춘장, in Beijing they use huangjiang 黃醬 or sweat bean sauce 甜麵醬, in Guangdong we use hoisin sauce 海鮮醬...  For this one, I lightly sautéed some ginger and garlic then lightly brown some ground pork; carrot dices, sweet bean sauce and hot bean sauce 辣豆瓣醬　went it for half a minute or so before water was added.  Simmer for 15 minutes to make a thick meat sauce.  That is my zhajiang mian of the day.

Yet More Chops

I sliced the thick chop in halves this time and simply salt-n-peppered them before dusting them with seasoned flour.  Quickly seared in a hot pan and that's it.  It is a little boring, particularly with rice, so I made a smoky and slightly spicy carrot and kelp salad to go with it.  The salad is dressed with black mustard seeds popped in hot oil, rice vinegar, sugar, salt and hot chili powder.  Despite the meat, it feels light and refreshing because of the salad.

Meated, This Time

Last week I made a similar tofu dish without meat and, for variety sake, I have some small cubed pork.  With it I added yellow back wood ears 黃背耳 for crunch.  Seasonings are Sichuan hot bean paste 郫縣豆瓣, Shaoxing liquor 紹興酒, sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil.  Inhaled it quickly with rice. 

More Chops

I wanted a sandwich but found that I am out of sandwich meats so I sautéed a salt-n-peppered pork chop then fit it in between my own bread, lettuce and Dijon mustard.  Very simple, passable for a quick lunch. 

Pork Chop

I found out that this preparation is best with thin chops.  These thicker chops are salt-n-peppered then brown with garlic and cumin added towards the end.  This works well with thin chops and chicken thighs but with thick chops, the flavour doesn't penetrate enough  The garlic though work well with mash potato and giant mustard green. 

Mushroom Silky Chicken Rice in a Pot 北菇滑雞煲仔飯

This is quick and simply and a Cantonese favourite.  Chicken pieces, sliced reconstituted shiitake mushroom, salt preserved radish 沖菜 and red dates are marinated with sugar, salt, cornstarch and soy sauce for half an hour.  Cook rice and water in a clay pot until the water has been absorbed and drop below the top of the rice then add the chicken and cook at medium heat for 15 or so minutes until the chicken is cook.  

No Knead Pizza

Haven't made pizza for a while so I thought "why not try to make one with the NY Times no knead bread dough?"  It turns out good, a little bread-y but light and tender still.  For the sauce I just drained some chopped canned tomato with salt, crushed pepper, oregano, chopped garlic and black pepper.  Toppings are Parmigiano Reggiano, mozzarella, maple smoked bacon and onion.  I have never made pizza with bacon before so the result is a little unusual to me. It feel more like a Flammekueche then pizza to me, strange. 

Beef Stew Soup...?

To most Chinese Euro-American soup is a bit of a mystery.  To Chinese a soup is rather watery, more like a consommé.  These days, most of the soup you find in restaurants out here in North America at least tends to be of the thicker kinds--beef barley, pumpkin...and the like.  To a Chinese, these are more stew than soup.  Here I have a beef stew that is slight more saucy than usually, so you tell me, is it a soup or a stew?

No Meat

I decided not to put meat into this dish because, well, I did not have any handy.  Tofu and eggplant need seasoning so in goes garlic chives, garlic, ginger, hot bean sauce 辣豆瓣醬, sugar and soy sauce.  A little sesame oil to finish and I don't miss the meat a bit.

Pork Chop and Lentil

I realize by looking at this picture that this combination is not providing very good colour combination,all different shades of brown.  It is good eating though.  The chop is simply salt-and-peppered and then pan seared with some fennel seeds.  The lentil is cooked with onion, carrot, garlic, green bell pepper, tomato paste and chicken stock.  Taste-wise, it is an excellent combination, I have to work on the colour scheme.  

Lime Restaurant

Lime is my favourite Japanese restaurant in Vancouver of late.  It is about half way between my home and downtown, considerably cheaper than the best downtown and better than 90% of Japanese restaurants there.  The chef used to work at Sakae, one of my, and many other's, old time downtown favourites.  I had their lobster 4 course, daily special snapper rolled with homemade soba, toro stack (photo), fresh oysters, stuffed crab legs, beer and tea, at C$100 for two it is not bad at all.  And the food, well, all quite excellent, fresh and high grade materials and very good touch on cooking and seasoning. 

Poule au Vin

There are these small stewing hens on the market at about $2 each.  I like to keep a couple of them around for stock.  At just about 1½ lb. they are good serving size for one or two, I thought.  I made this stew as an experiment.  It turned out to be very tasty, richer and deeper than young chicken.  The texture of the meat though is interesting.  After an hour in the pressure cooker, it felt more like game birds or rabbit, tender but still well held together.  The comparison is definitely more rabbit than chicken.  I really enjoyed it. 

Beef and Radish Soup 蘿蔔牛肉湯

Beef and radish, may it be the Chinese luobo or Japanese daikon, is a favourite combination in East Asia.  The seasonings are a little different but the Cantonese and Korean soup versions are very similar.  Typically, a soup base of beef bones is made before cooking the meat and radish.  Here, I make a simple and quicker one by cooking cubes of meat with water, ginger, cloves and star anise in a pressure cooker for half and hour before adding salt and cubed radish to cook for another half an hour without pressure.  Scallion is the finishing touch. Using fattier cuts like brisket make it rich but lean ones, as I used here, make a clean fresh soup.

Cutlet

Once upon a time, late 70s early 80s, cutlet is the thing on menus.  I remember the talk was on whose veal cutlet is best, who had the most authentic scaloppini.  Lately though, besides the occasional schnitzel, cutlets has fallen out of favourite in restaurants.  At home though, they are easy to make and cheap.  Here I use some thin cuts of pork sirloin, flour-egg-crumb them (my own stale bread, oregano, paprika, lemon zest, salt and pepper) then sautéed in olive oil and butter.  Quick, tasty, and a little meat goes a long way. 

'Olive-Vegetable' Fried Rice 欖菜炒飯

'Olive-vegetable' 欖菜 is a typical side dish on the Chaozhou table.  It is giant mustard greens salted and shredded then  cooked slowly with black Chinese olives 烏欖 and its oil.  We not only love it as an accompaniment to congee and rice, we cook with it often too.  Here is a simple fried rice.  Day old rice is stir-fried with egg, 'olive vegetable' and scallion; very simple and unexpectedly tasty.

Chocolate Soufflé

Chris said I should make more soufflé, so here is another one.  As simple as the last one: melted chocolate mixed into egg yolk already beaten with sugar then fold into sweeten stiff beaten egg white then bake for 12 minutes.  Simple and basic.  Ah, Chris, where is your house?

Chicken and Oyster Paella (sort of)

I suppose you can call any rice dish cooked in a shallow pan a paella.  Here I have chicken and oyster, unusually, I admit.  Brown chicken, sautéed onion,garlic and carrot, canned tomato, oregano, thyme,chicken stock, fresh oyster are the ingredients.  Not bad for a one-pan reasonably quick meal.  

Oyster and Tofu Pot 姜蔥生蠔豆腐煲

The main thing about his dish is bring out the fragrance of ginger, garlic and scallion.  A big hand full of them is fried in a very hot pot until just starting to take on colour.  Add parboiled oysters and cook for a minute then sprinkle on some Shaoxing wine 紹興酒 and cover for half a minute or so.  Add tofu, stir a little then add sauce--oyster sauce, soy sauce, white pepper, sugar and salt.  A minute of two with the lid on and it is done. 

Baked Oyster Custard v.2.0

This dish is usually made by steaming the custard until set before broiling it to crisp the top.  In the old days, and in many Chinese kitchens today, oven was a rather rare kitchen appliance, so the two step method is good.  Now, though, with an oven at home, wouldn't it be easier to one step it in the oven, I thought?  I baked this in a hot water bath at 400℉ for 20 minute until the custard set and the top crisp.  The result is great, as good as and perhaps better than the other method.  If you want the old recipe, look here:

Baked Oyster Custard

Lemonade

I experimented with roasting a beef outside round and didn't work out so good. What to do?  Cut it up and make a tomato-chili-bean stew.  The base is onion, carrot, garlic, tomato, cumin, paprika, chili powder, hot chili powder and oregano.  Chickpeas and white beans are first cooked in the pressure cooker for half and hour before adding into the liquid with the beef and its pan juice.  Another half and hour under pressure and  I have a stew to eat for days and days and days...

Banana Soufflé

People really should make more soufflés at home, it is not only impressive but easy, quick and cheap.  Half a banana, one egg yolk, a little sugar and a little lemon juice (per person) all blended smooth in the blender are folded into 1 stiff beaten egg white sweeten with sugar.  Put into a buttered and sugared ramekin, bake in 400℉ until tall and brown, about 12 minutes and it is done.  This one I forgot to clean the rim so it doesn't look so great, still good eatin' though.

Bread in a Pot

I would have never even consider baking bread in a covered pot had I not seen a very tall chef does it on TV with seemingly good result.  I tries and the result is surprisingly good.  Heat up the pot, put my usually dough in, and bake covered.  What comes out is a light and crispy bread, very lovely. 

Deep Fried Oysters

There is a saying in Cantonese "big eating girl make a thin batter."  I guess because the typical Cantonese batter is relatively thick, made with flour, cornstarch, oil, baking powder and water, it is easy to fall apart if just a little thin.  So, you are warned, don't be greedy with the water.

Chicken Dinner

Hong Kong people like to call a boneless chicken thigh a 'chicken steak' with good reason.  I like to cook it in a dry pan over medium high heat skin side down until all the fat has been rendered out and the skin brown and crisp before turning it over to brown and cook the meat side.  Here, when it is cooked, I drain off the fat, add minced garlic and half a lemon's juice.  Serve here with rice and red cabbage cooked with cloves, cane sugar and aged vinegar.  Very homemade, very tasty.

Wild Lunch

I try to stay away from the Granville Island Public Market as much as possible--it is too easy to spend every last penny buying great food.  Here is a sample: cured caribou 'prosciutto' and spice wild boar salami from the great Oyama Sausage Company and runny Munster and silky Morbier from Les Amis du Fromage,  Add a little green things and a large chunk of bread a wonderful lunch is made. 

Slow Roast Cross-rib in a Pot

Not everyone like meat rare the way I do, so sometimes I have to find ways to cook a pretty fully roast meat that is still tender enough to enjoy.  This is perhaps the best way.  The roast is salt-and-peppered then browned on the stove top.  Onion, garlic cloves, carrot, celery and herbs are then added.  The whole thing is then roasted in a low oven (250℉) covered for three-four hours.  You can of course do it for a few hours more until it is pulled apart soft, but I like to keep it slicable.

Because it is cooked at low temperature and with its own moisture trapped in the pot, the meat is tender and moist, even when fully cooked.  Make a sauce all by itself too.  This method is particularly good with the leaner cheaper cuts, like the cross-rib here.  Economic, tasty and make great sandwiches too. 

Guatemala Acatenenango Finca La Soledad

Guatemala Acatenenango Finca La Soledad

Balance is an usually a good thing but it can also mean uninspiring. Everything where it should be, nothing out weighting anything else, completely textbook, those praises that can as easily be the opposite. This is a very balanced coffee; sweetness, acidity, bitterness are all there but nothing dominates. It is full, flavourful and even complex, but there is no unique defining character, unless balance is it. Still, it is a very enjoyable cup, at Full City, just before 2nd crack, I find that it does some interesting thing going for it, it has a lovely roasted maltiness to it that reminds me of the sweetness of a good cigar. I don't like it like I like a fine Yirgacheffe or Sulawesi, but if I want warm and comfort this may very well be it.

Lamb Shoulder

This is probably a pot roast.  The whole shoulder is salted and then browned in an extra hot (500℉) oven.  Whole carrots, chunks of onion, ribs of celery, head of garlic are laid on the bottom of the heavy pot and rest the lamb on top.  Sprinkle on black pepper, oregano and cumin, covered and bake in a slow oven (275℉) for 4 hours.  Add mushrooms for the last half hour.  The carrots and mushrooms are just right as sides.  Skim off the fat, mash the garlic cloves and the sauce is ready.  I like to take the bones out by pulling lightly with my hand and put the meat back into the pot in big chunks.  Eat over rice.  True flavours. 

Roast Pork Hash

When I used to party until 4am, I looked for greasy diners with good corn beef hash.  Coffee, hash and egg seemed to be the best way to hold off alcohol and fatigue; it is the starch and grease, they say.  I don't party till 4 anymore but I still like dinner hash.  Here is a quick way to make hash.  Diced potatoes are zapped in a microwave oven for 4 minutes then add them to a hot pan with onion already softened.  Cook until the potato starts to brown then add some corn beef (here I used leftover roast pork instead).  Cook a minutes or two, salt and pepper, top with an egg, there, a classic.

Waste Not--Shiitake Stem 冬菇蒂

With the affordable price of dry shiitake mushroom these days, most people just throw away the woody stems and use only the tender caps.  I remember when I was little though, my grandmother would come up with many ways to eat the stems.  The trick is to soak them really well and cook for a good long time. This is probably the easiest way.  After soaking it for almost a day, the tough bits on the end of the stems are cut off and then the whole lot is cooked slowly with the soaking liquid, sugar and soy sauce for about and hour and a half.  The stems become very tender but with a good bit and the mushroom flavour is full, more so than the caps.  It is a wonderful cold side dish.